#4: Let’s Start From The Bottom Up

This is the fourth blog post towards the eventual conclusion that I feel like no matter how many times I say it (in my head or other wise) it doesn’t feel… appreciated? No, I guess the right words for what I’m experiencing is adolescent existential crisis. I’ll abbreviate it to A.E.C. so I can add it to my tag.

Sometimes I can’t decide what’s really “worth it” and I know it’s common especially at this age, and it probably won’t ever end because it adds a purposefully path to my life, but it’s distracting and almost sticky. Like no matter how many times I pull my feet out, my boots get shucked into the bog again with each trudge and I get tired after every advancement. Where am I going? , I consistently ask myself.

Anyways.

My point is, asking why is apart of everything we do. Or at least should do. Without a purpose there’s no motivation and in a way motivation is energy, that extra spark to get the gears going.

So, in the case of our projects, I asked myself again and again: “Why am I doing this?” My answer was dumbfounded silence like I’d gummed my train of thought into a misty stupor and I could actually feel my face fall. I was stuck hearing the same thing over and over. Why, why, why, why, why, WHY?

Then I felt suddenly ridiculous. My answer was simple.

I love food.

No, no, like, I love food. I am awed by food. Even more so, the human biology fascinates me to no end. Even remembering facts about our bodies reignites a sense of responsibility I owe to my self because I’m contained in this organic machine of infinite potential. Don’t even get me started on psychology.

Again, my original point was that I appreciate food and what it does for my body, so it’s only natural that I want to invest research to understand, essentially, myself better. Really, I could make it into a selfless spiel (by the way, that’s the German word and spelling for “play”) about how knowing about the things you consume can benefit your over all well being but I just really don’t want to miss out on my life and that includes doing what I can for my body. Which everyone should also consider and then eventually the world will have that same goal, but that’s optimistically.

I watched that TEDTalk and it’s not normally the genre of TEDTalks I frequent but I gain something from any TEDTalk so I don’t regret it for sure. In it the guy, Simon Sinek, addressed the WHYs, HOWs, and WHATs leaders pay attention to when they want their followers to, well, follow them. After I wrote down two things from the video and those choices were:

  1. People don’t buy what they need but what you believe.
  2. Leaders hold a position of authority or power but those who lead inspire people. We don’t have to follow those who lead but we want to for ourselves.

The first point seemed… eh. Americans (to me) are materialistic in a lot of ways. Not saying other countries are, but from the things around me advertised and demonstrated through out the course of a day, it’s hard to ignore our constant attraction to things. We want those, we MUST have these, OH! What about this? It’s an endless cycle of flippant accumulation of over valued products we most of the time don’t need or won’t ever use. Adding an emotional connection to the object is just another stronger instant bond the consumer will create that will be unbreakable. Until they shove their extra snow shoes and never-to-be-seen-again Christmas sweaters into the cold, back closet everyone passes without a second glance. So, yeah, sticking a message onto things that reminds them of your beliefs because it could loosely connect to their own in a vague slogan really does the trick. Humans are suckers for a deeper understanding even if they’re fabricated by sales teams.

Though the second point I find inspiring. Or completely truthful. When I think of leaders I think of the President or tyrants, but when I see “those who lead” it’s with a sense of action. Like leaders are pretty heads representing our government, but those who lead are part of the people and they’re more than perfected images the average person knows they can’t ever be.

After reflecting on those two notes, the next thing to do was to search for global movements of our topic and relate the programs, ideas, and/or innovations we found.

There was much searches and google docs containing extra information I enjoyed obtaining, but I decided just three things would be okay to put into this post.

An idea, an innovation, and a program.

The idea was Dynamic Eating Psychology.

It sounds weird, but basically it connects our thinking and brain chemistry with eating and the things that come from that combination. Mostly eating disorders and how eating in a beneficial way to you would make you “happier” but it can pertain to anyone. I picked this idea because I can agree that our psychology has a symbiotic relationship with our nutrition. This way of thinking, from my experiences and interaction with health professionals, is widely accepted. Though besides the college class no ones actually explained that relationship. I intend to extend this research expedition though.

The innovation I found was Gold Rice.

Also not something everyone is accustomed to. In a nutshell Gold Rice is genetically modified rice spliced with corn. Yes, a GMO. But wait, there’s more. The reason Robert Zeigler, who is the director general of the International Rice Research Institution, says the Gold Rice is good is because the rice would contain beta-carotene which is a precursor in food that our body absorbs to make vitamin A. Which means humans don’t eat vitamin A, we have to make it by eating orange foods that have beta-carotene. In countries like Asia where vitamin A deficiencies are a huge factor in death because they eat mainly rice it’d make it so they can eat something familiar but also better. Though I agree this method (applying genetically modified foods to developing countries) would be useful and an easy way to catch up those in need of certain micro and macro nutrients, I also don’t think it’d be a perfect long term solution. Natural is better in most cases.

Then I looked for a program and happened upon GoodPlanet Foundation.

They’re an organization that uses lots of different medias such as video and pictures to eventually achieve their mission which is an environmentally balanced Earth. They’re centered around more earth issues than nutrition specifically but that doesn’t mean they’re not connected to nutrition at all. Of course all food comes from the ground, and for those of us that eat animals they still eat food from the ground, so it makes sense that the Earth’s well being is just as important as our own. Uniting everyone for a common cause is essential to all parties with different purposes because in numbers we can conquer something greater than the individual.

Okay, so all that research was fun. Now time to support my own WHYs, HOWs, and WHATs.

Hmm, my why is my purpose or my belief concerning my topic. Well, like I said at the very beginning, my belief is that I want to do what I can for my body and I’m certain everyone else has that, if not slight, concern for themselves. No one whats to be unhealthy it just happens because of whatever other limiting factors they have to contend with daily. Like stress. So much stress!

The how is how my belief translates to others. At some point I think we’re going to end up with a documentary of our topic and that’s one way, in the form of compelling visuals, that my message could get across. I’m also thinking about writing a book. Not all about my topic but like encompassing as much as I can about nutrition into pages with images and words. My topic would be in there though too. I like books and I will (got to have positive thoughts) one day publish my work. This is something I’m passionate about so I would have no problem (besides the usual creative process of writers) continuing my ever expansion of knowledge in nutrition. Though what I think is awesome is that it would’nt be just facts and stats but more a philosophical take. For me questioning myself helps me remember things better than numbers. I wonder if I can make people question themselves, like Shakespeare’s works, that maybe it’d stick with them.

 

Preview of My Pitch(still working on it):

Everyone eats. In a way that’s the main reason we live. I’m concerned with how lightly we take our food and what we put inside our bodies. Can anyone explain why we eat? There are so many factors that it confuses me that the majority of people I know simply take their nutrition for granted. Yes, there are intense pressing issues that over cast our biological nature because something as basic as eating becomes unconscious. What if we were all just a little more thoughtful about how the food we eat nourishes our bodies? There are so many things nutrition affects: body image, money to combat poor health, shortened life spans, and other problems that I think could be solved or at least lessened if we all worked toward better nutrition.

Keira Thorpe

4 Responses to “#4: Let’s Start From The Bottom Up

  • Hi Keira!

    I know I’ve said this before but passion is key! It’s so great that you truly have a passion for nutrition. People have really begun to ignore what they put into their bodies and how it effects them. If I were you, during school one day, ask your classmates what they had for breakfast, then ask them what’s in their food. Probably everyone is not going to know, nor should they. However, it’s the idea about ignorance that could help you. This is just a suggestion, I’m kind of just spit-balling here, but talking to people is a really fun way to research you’re topic.

    -Emily

    • Yes! Thank you for that idea! I should start asking and getting a feel for what the average person thinks or knows about their food. That’s a really cool idea and I’m looking forward to asking tomorrow 😀

  • Colleen Kiley
    7 years ago

    Hi Keira,

    I love this line from your post: “I can agree that our psychology has a symbiotic relationship with our nutrition. ” Awesome. Seems like a great jumping off point to begin your research. And I like, through all your muddle-ness, you came full circle. In the beginning of your post you asked yourself “why” you care about this project. By the end you had created a great research question: “Can anyone explain WHY we eat?” I love it. You got this!

    • Haha, thank you 🙂 I like asking those kind of open ended questions and then finding an answer but not an answer that answers the question asked.

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